Four tales of terror are related by some characters trapped in a film set in this anthology film from directors Joe Dante, Ken Russell, Sean Cunningham, Monte Hellman, and newcomer John Gaeta. I thought it a fun romp, but there’s predictability to the tales.
Six strangers show up for a tour of Ultra Studios. They don’t seem to remember getting their “all access” passes but are taken on the tram by their diminutive tour guide (Henry Gibson). They’re shown the horror house set from the 1960s thriller Hysteria, but the tour guide says that they can’t enter.
They protest that they have “all access” and he relents and lets them inside. They become trapped in one of the elaborate sets in the house and the guide speculates that if they told tales of terror about themselves, like in the film Hysteria, that whoever had trapped them might let them out. So begins our four horror stories.
The first is called the “Girl with the Golden Breasts” (directed by Ken Russell) and tells about an aspiring actress who thinks that she needs better boobs to get the roles she wants. She goes to a seedy plastic surgeon and gets more than she bargained for.
The next is “Jibaku” (directed by Sean S. Cunningham) and has a couple on a business trip to Japan when the wife meets a mysterious man at a party. They later visit a temple – only to find that the man was a monk there are committed suicide. The man’s spirit takes to visiting the wife at night and a little necrophilia gets thrown into the Saki. The husband finds that his wife has vanished and literally has to go to hell and back to retrieve her.
Next is “Stanley’s Girlfriend” (directed by Monte Hellman) and is about what happens when an upcoming actor/director meets another up and comer called Stanley (obviously Stanley Kubrick). Stanley hooks up with a new girlfriend, but when Stanley is away in Europe she decides to take up with his pal – and then things get strange.
Finally, there’s “My Twin, the Worm” (directed by John Gaeta) about an expectant mother who finds she has a tapeworm. Rather than kill the parasite with high doses of iron, which would also kill the baby, she decides to let both grow within her.
Trapped Ashes harkens back to the old anthology films of Amicus Productions, such as Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors (1964), The House that Dripped Blood (1970), and Tales from the Crypt (1972). I’ve always enjoyed the concept of the anthology film since you get several mini-tales for the price of one movie.
That and if you don’t happen to like one then perhaps you’ll have another opportunity in the next slice. The wraparound segment of Trapped Ashes is directed by Joe Dante and he peppers it with several nice genre cameos – Henry Gibson, John Saxon, and his good luck charm Dick Miller.
The only tale that really didn’t do much for me was “My Twin, the Worm.”
Ken Russell has been around the “deranged” block before (part of the tale almost looks like it takes place in the scummy neighborhood that Crimes of Passion was in) and his contribution is creepy, colorful, strange, and features a generous amount of tits (always a plus!).
Jibaku uses anime to great effect and the necrophilia aspect is helped by some icky makeup effects. Stanley’s GF might be fun for film buffs in that it speculates on the reason that Kubrick (though last names aren’t mentioned in the piece) never returned to the states after moving to England.
The worm just didn’t seem to turn for me, although I didn’t think that Gaeta directed poorly, as the story just didn’t seem to gel. Sadly, the storytelling is where the film may suffer as most genre fans will spot the twists a mile away.
Trapped Ashes is presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.78:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions. Special features include a commentary from writer Dennis Bartok, and actors Rachael Veltri, John Saxon, Lara Harris, and Scott Heindl. Next are 13 minutes of deleted scenes.
You also get the director’s cut of Stanley’s Girlfriend (28 minutes) and the original cut of The Girl with Golden Breasts (26 minutes). The “Look Inside” section has a documentary in five parts.
The 5-minute “Making of Trapped Ashes” interviews Dante and Bartok about the wraparound segment and project. The next four segments interview the director’s about their segments, Russell (7 minutes), Cunningham (5 minutes), Hellman (6 minutes), and Gaeta (6 minutes).
Trapped Ashes is on the predictable side, but it does feature some decent segments from some master directors. Anthology fans may well find something to like in one of them.
Trapped Ashes is now available at Amazon . As of yet, there is not a release date for the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.
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